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EXAMPLE  Claim: People should not have plastic surgery.  Reason: Plastic surgery is unnatural.  Underlying assumption: People should become healthier naturally.  Evidence: Over 300,000 people got liposuction in 2011 instead of going on a diet.

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CLASS-GENERATED EXAMPLE  Claim: The U.S. should withdraw all troops from the Middle East.  Reason: People in the Middle East do not want U.S. troops in their countries.  Underlying assumption:

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THE CRUCIBLE EXAMPLE  In The Crucible, the people who were making false accusations were doing so to give society what they wanted to hear instead of the truth.  Claim: Accusers in The Crucible told society lies because that is what society wanted to hear.  Evidence: The accusers told lies.  Underlying Assumption: Society was not searching for the truth (Society wants lies).

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SOME MORE TIPS ABOUT UNDERLYING ASSUMPTIONS  If your audience generally agrees with you, you can often leave these assumptions unstated. However, if they disagree with you, you should state it and make sure it is logical and reasonable.  Underlying assumptions are always general categorical statements. They do not mention specifics.  Underlying assumptions almost always share the same verb, or verb phrase, as claims.  “should withdraw”  If possible, write out your claim and evidence/reason as complete sentences that share the same subject.

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FOR MY MATH PEOPLE  Claim: A B  Evidence: B C  Warrant: A C

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THE PAY OFF  If your audience agrees to your underlying assumption and evidence, they must agree to your claim.  If the author you’re analyzing misses this step, you can critique his argument.

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FREDERICK DOUGLASS EXAMPLE  Claim: “Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? That point is conceded already. Nobody doubts it… The manhood of the slave is conceded.”  Evidence: “There are seventy-two crimes in the State of Virginia, which, if committed by a black man (no matter) how ignorant he may be), subject him to the punishment of death; while only two of these same crimes will subject a white man to like punishment.”  Underlying assumption: “What is this but the acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual, and responsible being?”  Evidence: “It is admitted in the fact that Southern statute books are covered with enactments, forbidding, under severe fines and penalties, the teaching of the slave to read and write.”  Underlying assumption: “When you can point to any such laws in reference to the beasts of the field, then I may consent to argue the manhood of the slave.”